Boy, four, killed by a stray bullet 'fired by neighbour' as child fished with his father

A four-year-old boy who was fatally shot while fishing with his father was struck in the head by an errant bullet, a sheriff and a family friend said.

Wells County Sheriff Monte Fisher said on Sunday that Jacob Michuda was shot in the head late Friday night while he and his father were fishing from a pier at a pond outside Ossian, a rural community about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne.

Family friend Trisha Ulmer said Jacob's the boy's mother told her the boy was shot in the temple.

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'Little angel': Jacob Michuda, who was shot dead on Friday, loved fishing and being outdoors

Mr Fisher said an autopsy was performed Saturday.

Forty-six-year-old next door neighbour Bruce Pond was being held without bond on a preliminary charge of reckless homicide and is due to appear in court Monday.

Fisher alleged that alcohol was involved.

He said Pond apparently shot at a light on the pier where the father and son were fishing.

Scene of death: The little pier from where Jacob Michuda was fishing with his father when he took a bullet in the temple

Miss Ulmer said: 'I think it was just a freak accident,'

Police and medics were called to the scene at 11.07pm on Friday, the Associated Press reports.

Police said an ambulance took the boy to a hospital in Fort Wayne, where he was pronounced dead at 3.12am Saturday.

Police arrested Pond later that day.]

Arrested: Neighbour Bruce Pond was being held without bond on a preliminary charge of reckless homicide

The shooting was the latest in a recent string of children's death from gunshots across Indiana.

It came just one day after a four-year-old boy from Cedar Lake, in northwest Indiana's Lake County, accidentally shot himself at a suburban Chicago liquor store.

Two other Indiana boys also have died from gunshots in the past month.

A two-year-old Connersville boy died July 14 after accidentally being shot by his 5-year-old brother, and a 6-year-old boy died June 30 after being shot in the head with a .22-caliber gun at his family's home near Martinsville.

Remote: The picturesque pond in rural Ossian, about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne

The Martinsville boy's 11-year-old brother faces juvenile charges of murder and reckless homicide in that shooting.

Miss Ulmer, who said she had known Jacob Michuda since he was born, described him as an 'angel.'

'He was always smiling. He was an angel,' she said.

'He was a perfect little boy. He was so tender-hearted and loving.'

Miss Ulmer added that Jake, who was from nearby Bluffton, loved to fish and spend time outdoors and frequently fished at the Ossian pond with his father.